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BALL LIGHTNING - WORLD'S FIRST tisk damaging the structure by making it MADE TO ORDER PLASTIC TREE vibrate at a critical stress-producing rate. Electrolysis by simple direct current Over half a century after Nikola Tesla A spanish inventor is patenting the | would create hydrogen and oxygen with a demonstrated what was later referred to as | world's first plastic tree, which he says can | nett energy efficiency of only 54%, accord- "Ball Lightning" - it would appear it has | help generate rain if planted in desert | ing to Puharich, but he says his alternating been "discovered" again. regions. current system reaches better than 90% "Ball Lightning" has usually been the Antonio Ibanez, an engineer from | efficiency. subject of folklore, with many scientists | Barcelona, claims that the French and Arab Puharich discovered the water splitting being skeptical about the existence of such | governments are pursuing him for his | technique over 12 years ago, but has only a phenomenon. secrets. recently gone public. Originally he was There are many stories of "balls of fire" The tree apparently absorb dew and frost | investigating the disruptive effect of elec- that float through the air, often about 1 foot | at night and slowly release water during the | trical resonances on blood clots and noticed in diameter, with the ability to float against | day, thus cooling the surface air. a peculiar thing: in dilute blood, specific the wind, or even through walls and glass. Libya has begun a pilot project with | frequency made bubbles appear in the liq- But now, physicists in Japan have creat- | 40,000 trees. uid. Lab analysis later showed that the bub- ed discharges of plasma - hot, ionised gas, Once ground temperatures are cool | bles were composed of hydrogen and oxy- similar to ball lightning. enough to ensure regular rainfall, the palms | gen. Using a microwave oscillator, or mag- | could be replaced by real trees. A barrel-shaped cavity contains the netron, to generate up to 5 kilowatts of (Source: Sun-Herald, 9th June 1991) | water in Puharich's recently refined system. microwave power at a frequency of 2.45 He introduces alternating current a key fre- gigahertz, the radiation is guided into an SEA WATER - A NEW quency of 600 cycles per second. air-filled metal cavity measuring 161 mm FUEL ALTERNATIVE? The cavity resonates with the impulses in in diameter, and 370mm long. (Nature, Vol. somewhat the same way the body of a vio- 350, p.139). Seawater, or even dirty rainwater, could | lin resonates with the sound of one string, The microwaves are reflected up and e transmuted into fuel through a new tech- | adding higher and lower harmonics to the down the cavity, setting up a so-called | nique serendipitously discovered by a | principal tone. standing wave. This has 6 "antinodes" - | researcher in medical electronics. The additional harmonics, says Puharich, points at which the field is strongest. Dr. Andrija Puharich has found a way to | cause the proton in the hydrogen atom to Y.H. Ohtsuki of Waseda University in | split water molecules Tokyo, and H. Ofuruton of the Tokyo y tuning in on the Metropolitan College of Aeronautical | vibrations of their Engineering filmed several different kinds | atoms and breaking the of plasma discharge, which originated at | molecules into hydro- the antinodes: stationary fire-balls, and | gen, which could moving flames. ecome fuel, and oxy- In some instances, these remained for 1 | gen. to 2 seconds after the magnetron was Alternating Current turned off. impulses augment nat- When the researchers placed a ceramic | urally occurring vibra- board 3mm thick between the cavity and | tions in the H20 mole- the waveguide, the plasma went right | cules. By boosting the through the board without damaging it. vibrations out of con- A 100mm long copper bar placed in the | trol, Puharich makes cavity produced many of these plasma | the molecules fly apart balls, some of which travelled along the | into the component bar. Even when a strong wind was intro- | atoms. duced into the cavity, some balls continued He likens the water- to travel down the bar apparently unaffected. | splitting effect to the (Source: New Scientist 23 March 1991, | way soldiers marching page 20) | instep across a bridge —_ Seumentiide BALL LIGHTNING - MADE TO ORDER WORLD'S FIRST PLASTIC TREE SEA WATER - A NEW FUEL ALTERNATIVE? i=) 20 Semmenriha NEXUS - 39 JULY/AUGUST 1991 + YEAR BOOK